Transcript Tree of Life

BIODIVERSITY AND
BIOPROSPECTING
Andrew Beattie
Department of Biological Sciences
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
[email protected]
Eucaryotes
Only!
Tree of Life
Example: Rarefaction curves for V6 hypervariable regions
of ribosomal RNAs from 8 deep-sea water samples. (Sogin
et al. 2006. PNAS)
And they contain
many different
metabolic/biochemical
functions
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SO:
Most species are (much) less than 1 cm in
length
Any landscape harbours many more species
than meet the eye
Invertebrates
Microbes
Single-cell animals and plants
We know remarkably little about them
Their biology, their uses
Biodiversity: The Resource
• NUMBERS:
• Approximately: 30m species (n genes),
2m described, 20,000 species utilized…
• ie the resource is little-known/under-used
• >1% of species have supported civilization so
far:
What about the
other 99%?
BIOPROSPECTING FOR ECOSYSTEM
SERVICES eg WILD POLLINATORS
• Custard Apple Annona sp, Longan, Macadamia
Plantations
• All need wild insects for pollination
• All show highest yields when near rain forest
Worldwide landscape effects on Pollination
Services. (Ricketts 2008. Ecology Letters 11)
• Native pollinator visitation vs. Distance from
natural habitat. Note that native visitors drop to
50% at 660m.
• Interactions: farmers,ecologists and bioprospectors
Increasing pollinator dependency worldwide
(Aizen et al. Current Biology (2008) 18:1572-1575
dependent
non-dependent
Pollinators
Farm Industries
Agricultural Industries
Money
JOBS
Transport and Distribution
Manufacturing and Processing
Wholesale and Retail
Biological control agents
Salvinia molesta
Cyrtobagous salviniae
Host-specific from Brazil
Who would have
thought ?
Brazilian wasp to control Cassava mealy-bug in
Thailand
(Science (2010) Vol 329)
wasp: Anagyrus lopezi
Mealy bug: Phenacoccus
manihoti
Khon Kaen province,
Thailand
Bioprospecting is the exploration of
biodiversity for new biological resources of
social and/or commercial value**
Traditional Knowledge: mostly from
developing countries, mostly botanical
medicines
Evolutionary Ecology:
ecologically-driven,
hypothesis-driven
**ecosystem
products, not
services
Industries that carry out bioprospecting
in a wide variety of environments
worldwide
• Biomimetic Engineering
• Biological Mining
• BioMonitoring
• BioRemediation
• PhytoRemediation, Mycoremediation
• Crop Protection
• Commercial Pollination
• Botanical Pharmaceuticals/Medicines
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MODERN BIOPROSPECTING IS
LOOKING FOR MANY KINDS OF
PRODUCTS
• MOST ECOSYSTEMS
Habitats
(terrestrial, freshwater
Species
and marine) ARE
Life-history
INVOLVED (all latitudes
and altitudes)
traits
• and
Behaviours
• MANY DIFFERENT
Adaptations
KINDS OF INDUSTRIES
Metabolic
ARE ACTIVELY
pathways
BIOPROSPECTING:
For pharmaceuticals in general (Henkel et al.
1999,Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 38:643)
BNPD total (29.432)
bacteria (10.417)
sugars
macrocycles
plants (7.323)
quinones
fungi (8.161)
peptides
N-heterocycles
marine macroorganisms (2.959)
O-heterocycles
algae (1.276)
alicycles
arenes
rare actinomycetes (1.915)
aliphatics
others
insects/worms (244)
molluscs (442)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Major Taxa of Bioprospecting Interest
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Bacteria
Fungi
Algae
Angiosperms
Porifera
Arthropoda
Mollusca
Crustacea
Annelida
biodiversity pie-chart
Enhancing the Science – Ecologically-Driven or
Hypothesis-Driven Bioprospecting
Basic Question:
Where would you expect the desired
product to have evolved?
Natural History:
A vast commercial database. key disciplines
-evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics,
microbiology, molecular biology, natural
products chemistry
Hypotheses:
Bioprospecting driven by testing
hypotheses
BIOPROSPECTING
1. This method (hypothesis testing) will
yield greater numbers and diversity of
leads
2. Often a “front-end” for combinatorial
chemistry
3. Chemists have the tools; biologists
have the leads
4. An example of an hypothesis:
Within-colony
density
Disease
Threat
Within-colony
genetic
diversity
solitary
Semi-social
social
Ecologically-focused (hypothesis-driven)
bioprospecting: Ants and antibiotics
Bioprospecting and Ants: Summary
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Ants have two-tier antimicrobial system:
External antiseptics (→patents)
Internal immune defence (→patents)
Rather than screen thousands of insects, use
biological knowledge to focus on likely
groups/habitats
• Evolutionary biology and ecology are
practical commercial tools and natural
history is a vast database
Bioprospecting and Ants
Ants are (novel) biological resources; in
each case in commercial use
**pharmaceuticals
**termiticide (pest control industry)
**biological control agents (agriculture)
**environmental monitoring (environment)
Ecologically-Driven or HypothesisDriven Bioprospecting (Recall the Basic
Question: Where would you expect the
desired product to have evolved?)
Examples of Hypotheses:
1. Stow et al. 2007. Biology Letters
(social evolution theory)
2. Coley et al. 2003. Frontiers of
Ecology (plant defence theory)
3. Clarke 2007 PhD Thesis Macquarie Uni
(foraging theory)
Modern Bioprospecting
• E.G. Industrial Biomimetics
“Nature is the world’s foremost
designer. With billions of years of
experience and boasting the most
extensive laboratory available, it
conducts research in every branch
of engineering and science”
(J. Bar-Cohen (2007) Biomimetics, Lavoisier, France)
Bioprospecting is also carried out by many other
industries: 1Manufacturing
• The Lotus Effect
• Biomimetic selfcleaning surfaces
• Patents for building
paints
(indoor/outdoor)
• Pipeline interiors
• Automobiles?
Engineering
• Long-distance fire
detection (50km)
• Fire-Loving beetles
(Melanophila)
• Infra-red Sensing
Systems, University of
Bonn
• PLoS One (2012)
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0
037627.
• Klocke et al (2011) Infrared
receptors in fire-loving insects
as models for new un-cooled
infrared sensors.
• Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2:186197
Dewan et al. (2012)
Nanostructured nipple
arrays of moth eye
facets helps to design
better thin film solar
cells. Doi:
10.1088/17483182/7/1/016003
Journal of
Bioinspiration
and
Biomimetics
• Ww
• Wasps as
drug/chemical
sensors
• Pure: Entomologia
Experimentalis et
Applicata (2007) 122
• Applied:
Biotechnology
Progress (2008) 22
Adhesion technologies
Bioprospecting among the microbes
• Medicine: Penicillium sp, Streptomyces sp, Bacillus
thuringiensis
• Pollution control:Cyanobacterial/Microalgal
Consortia Biotech Advances (2011 29: 896-907
• Pestalotiopsis First fungus to survive only on
polyurethane (plastic) waste (Tarantola (2012)
Science 105:217)
Bioprospecting the Microbes
• Deinococcus. Bacteria widely used for the
bioremediation of radioactive waste sites.
(McFarlan et al. (2000) Nature Biotechnology
18:85-90)
• Hymenoscyphus, Rhizopogon Two kinds of
soil fungi that break down depleted uranium in
war-contaminated soils. (Fomina et al. (2008)
Current Biology 18:R375-R377)
Bioprospecting the Microbes
• Escherichia coli Bacteria formed into
‘biopixels’ for low cost pollution and
contamination biosensors. (Prindle et al.
(2012) Science 481:39-44)
Bioprospecting the Microbes
• Leptospirillum sp., Ferroplasma sp.
Two groups of bacteria used for biomining: the recovery of precious and
base metals from ores and
tailings.(Ruder (2007) Microbiology
153:315-324).
Biodiversity-based industries
• Established:
agriculture, forestry, fisheries,
tourism
• Established but benefiting from
biodiversity exploration:
pharmaceuticals, crop protection,
botanical medicines, cosmetics
• Novel and Relatively novel:
biomining, biomonitoring,
bioremediation, ecological restoration,
industrial biomimetics, ecotourism
What is important to modern
bioprospecting?
• Taxa Products and industries have been derived
from an immense variety of plant, animal and
microbial species.
• Environments Polar, temperate, tropical, desert,
freshwater and marine ecosystems all being actively
explored.
• Adaptations These are the commodities in
demand by many industries, especially with the
advent of applied ecology and evolution.
Which taxa and what habitats should be
conserved?
• Products of major commercial value have been
derived from plants, animals and microbes
from polar, temperate, tropical, freshwater and
marine ecosystems: SO
It is not possible to predict
which genes, species or
ecosystems will be valuable
for future bioprospecting
Looking forward…
• Bioprospecting is diverse but focused as
researchers ask: Where is the desired product
likely to have evolved naturally: • Exploration driven by ecology/evolution
Thus, exploration takes place
where the adaptations have
evolved; not just where there
are more species
Because bioprospecting is carried
out by many kinds of industries
• The conservation of its resource –
biodiversity- is in the interest of
industry as well as conservationists
• So Biodiversity is very significant
to Brazil´s economy (pollinators,
crop protection agents, biomining,
pharmaceuticals, bioremediation,
industrial biomimicry etc etc
Social Benefits from Bioprospecting
Enhances local
science, scientists,
funding
Enhances investment,
employment
Supports
environmental
protection and
management
• Encourages conservation in sectors not
normally associated with it such as
business, industry and economic
development departments
CULTURAL WEALTH
• MINERAL
WEALTH
• LIVING
WEALTH
• IMAGINATION, AND
KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESOURCE
(biodiversity) IS CRITICAL TO
BIOPROSPECTING
Bioprospecting and the Future
• “All we have yet discovered is
but a trifle in comparison with
what lies hid in the great
treasury of nature”
• Antonie van Leewenhoek (1680)
Biodiversity and Conservation 2008